Toy companies have been masters of play for years. Now, consumer products brands are ready to have their fun.

When Licensing Expo opens its doors in Las Vegas this year, the toy industry is showing up in full force with industry giants including LEGO, Bandai Namco Entertainment America, Hasbro, Mattel, Funko, and more ready to connect with potential partners. The growth in the industry’s presence at the show has been a calculated effort, and it has inspired this year’s theme: Brands at Play.

“Instead of it just being something that’s happened by ‘happy accident,’ it’s something that we are actively curating through new exhibitors, through content in our educational programs, and activations that you’ll see across the three days of the show and into the evening events,” says Anna Clarke, Senior Vice President of Licensing for Informa Markets. 

Over the past four years, Licensing Expo has taken on greater importance to the toy industry as other trade events have shifted their schedules, moved locations, gone virtual, or been canceled altogether.

“It’s very much a relationship-driven industry,” Clarke says. “Those relationships can’t just survive and thrive virtually. There has to be face-to-face human connection … I think we’ve been a consistent pillar throughout all of this. Our events have carried on in the same dateline and in the same locations. I think that brings a sense of comfort and a sense of the known, but that doesn’t mean we’re resting on our laurels. We’ve made a lot of improvements and changes to the show as people have become more selective coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

As a staple on the toy industry’s trade show calendar, Licensing Expo continues to be a place where toy companies can forge bonds with companies new to the play space. While co-branded products are nothing new, there is a distinct uptick in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and other mainstream brands jumping into the toy department with playsets, activities, and other products that introduce kids to the brand names at a young age. 

Grocers like ALDI have joined the ranks of Black + Decker (tools), Jelly Belly (candy), ICEE (beverage), and more in finding new ways to connect with kids and families. Of course, some companies, such as John Deere (farming) and General Mills (cereals) have been in toy boxes for decades.

While many of these collaborations come in the form of dolls, action figures, role-play items, and vehicles, Scotts Miracle-Gro teamed up with Creative Kids to expand into the arts, crafts, and activities space. Creative Kids developed kits that kids can use to decorate planters using art supplies, then plant seeds in Miracle-Gro potting mix to grow flowers and other types of plants. 

“We wanted to extend activity kits into something even more interactive and more central to current trends,” explains Daniel DeLapa, Chief Marketing Officer at Creative Kids. “We were seeing at-home gardening as a huge, huge trend. We were definitely hunting for it and, being in the right place at the right time, all of it clicked together.”

In developing the range, Creative Kids wanted Miracle-Gro to be deeply involved and hopes to extend the range to include new types of plants along with greenhouse-style kits. 

“We worked very closely with them,” DeLapa says. “We collaborated to make sure that the tailored experiences we were making in these kits were not going to let the consumer down and only surprise and delight them and make them say ‘Oh my god, even if I have a brown thumb, I can have a green thumb if I use a Miracle-Gro [Kids] kit.’”

Miracle-Gro also collaborates with Red Toolbox for kid-sized gardening supplies including tools, gloves, a mini wheelbarrow, and more.  Red Toolbox has a variety of other licensed offerings, including toys under the Tasty Junior, Black + Decker, Oklahoma Joe’s, Stanley Jr., and Char-Broil brands.

“We’ve been very lucky to partner with some of the biggest names in their categories,” says Donna Arbeitman, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Licensing for Red Toolbox. “You will see a theme going through all of the brands and basically all of our toys — they translate the adult world for kids through play.”

Arbeitman says that Red Toolbox is expanding into automotive-themed toys with a new collaboration with Goodyear and also hinted at a future collection of toys developed with a top kitchen appliance brand.

With Licensing Expo kicking into high gear, toy companies and licensors alike will be making deals to bring even more brand names into toy aisles and toy boxes in the future. 

A version of this feature was originally published in The Toy Book’s 2024 Licensing & Entertainment Issue. Click here to read the full issue! Want to receive The Toy Book in print? Click here for subscription options!